What questions do you need answered before including social media in your organization's marketing strategy?
1. Isn’t social media just a new type of ad?
No it’s more than that, it’s actually a whole new way of reaching clients. If you think of ads as one technique used to communicate your value to prospects,social media is a whole new channel to do this. Yes you can still communicate your value but rather than trying to cram it all into one sentence (as you would with an ad) you have to be a bit more patient.
2. Isn’t all this social media stuff expensive?
Well yes and no. From a cash investment perspective, most of the top onlinesocial media services are free of charge to register with. However, to really make an impact through these tools you need to spend a lot of time on them. You have to explore, see who’s talking about things related to your company and try to open up a dialogue with them in a non-creepy way.
3. But I hear it’s all a fad anyways
Certainly various social media services will come and go and some will be a bit more gimmicky than others, but the underlying principle of social media, transparency, is hard-coded into the very DNA of the world wide web. If you can build your social media ‘muscles’ on one tool you’ll quite easily be able to transfer this skill set and mentality to other tools.
4. It’s all very well to make ‘friends’ online but SHOW ME THE MONEY
There are clear cut and well documented examples of companies making money from social media. But it doesn’t quite work like a typical print/online ad. You’re not likely to get a flood of business from your first blog post, your first message on Twitter or your first video uploaded to YouTube. But as you start developing a base of followers you can really start to leverage the power of social media. Imagine having a few thousand online users following your every uttering on Twitter, or subscribing diligently to your blog updates. These become powerful channels for launching new products, promoting special offers and even testing products.
5. Ok, so I guess we’ll need to hire some guru to get us set up?
By all means if you can hire one of the multitude of talented social media gurus and specialist agencies. But I think you’d do just fine with a couple of diligent, friendly and passionate members of staff. After all, you and you’re staff know your product and your clients better than any guru. Also, in the world of socialmedia, an authentic, if perhaps clumsy approach trumps a polished but scripted approach. People can usually see through that quite quickly and your credibility will drop dramatically.
6. What is the target market and how accessible is it to social media? Younger demographics are primary users. Teens are surprisingly dropping off and older users are slow to adopt.
7. How do my competitors use social media? Other companies may already have blogs and Facebook pages.
8. What message are we trying to convey? Ad copy that is brief, pithy, and opinionated will work well in a blog posting. It is especially good if the copy contains keywords popular with search engines.
9. How does our firm position its offerings? If our product or service has a fun component that makes it easy to use, then it can probably be easily described on a Facebook page where users can leave comments.
10. What's the cost per customer acquired? Social media is mostly free, but buying ads through Facebook or Google Adsense is an important decision. Figure the total cost of advertising and the amount of click-throughs it is expected to generate on your company's website. Then determine how many casual site visitors become paying customers.
7. How do my competitors use social media? Other companies may already have blogs and Facebook pages.
8. What message are we trying to convey? Ad copy that is brief, pithy, and opinionated will work well in a blog posting. It is especially good if the copy contains keywords popular with search engines.
9. How does our firm position its offerings? If our product or service has a fun component that makes it easy to use, then it can probably be easily described on a Facebook page where users can leave comments.
10. What's the cost per customer acquired? Social media is mostly free, but buying ads through Facebook or Google Adsense is an important decision. Figure the total cost of advertising and the amount of click-throughs it is expected to generate on your company's website. Then determine how many casual site visitors become paying customers.
11. I think the main thing that separates social media from traditional advertising is thatsocial media gives companies the opportunity to spend more time LISTENING to their consumers than trying to pitch to them. I strongly believe listening is a key component to a successful social media campaign.
12. It is expensive from a time perspective. Successful social media takes a lot of time and since time=money it can be expensive. However, if done correctly, has potential to be a very worthwhile investment
13. I would agree that some social media sites are fads, however the basic core concept behind communicating via social media is here to stay. The outlets of communication may change (Facebook becoming more popular than Twitter or vice versa, MySpace's rapid decline) but the communication, I think, is here to stay. It's up to marketers to stay on top of where the conversation is taking place.
14. Going back to the second question, there really is no instant gratification when it comes to social media profitability. One blog isn't going to make sales go up the next week. It just takes time to hang out on the web with people, build trust and establish consumer relationships. I think the best parallel to this I've seen is the story of Donnie Brasco in the beginning of "Trust Agents" by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
15. You could hire some guru. But I agree with the above that you can use staff that know the social media landscape. My company had the theory of hiring someone somewhat fresh out of college that had already grown up and been immersed in socialmedia culture. Hence, part of the reason why I have a job. I'd like to think it's been working well for them so far.
12. It is expensive from a time perspective. Successful social media takes a lot of time and since time=money it can be expensive. However, if done correctly, has potential to be a very worthwhile investment
13. I would agree that some social media sites are fads, however the basic core concept behind communicating via social media is here to stay. The outlets of communication may change (Facebook becoming more popular than Twitter or vice versa, MySpace's rapid decline) but the communication, I think, is here to stay. It's up to marketers to stay on top of where the conversation is taking place.
14. Going back to the second question, there really is no instant gratification when it comes to social media profitability. One blog isn't going to make sales go up the next week. It just takes time to hang out on the web with people, build trust and establish consumer relationships. I think the best parallel to this I've seen is the story of Donnie Brasco in the beginning of "Trust Agents" by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
15. You could hire some guru. But I agree with the above that you can use staff that know the social media landscape. My company had the theory of hiring someone somewhat fresh out of college that had already grown up and been immersed in socialmedia culture. Hence, part of the reason why I have a job. I'd like to think it's been working well for them so far.
Indeed ROI should be at the top of your list, and it can be measured with an effective website, blogs, landing pages (that capture leads) and analytics. We use Hubspot (www.hubspot.com) software because it combines all of these disciplines in one integrated space. None of this is free. You get out of the program in proportion to what you put in. Figure time (=money) for blogging, social media interaction and any marketing support you need.
As far as gurus go, why not skip the guru part (because it smacks of self-love) and go with an experienced marketing agency that knows how to do social media as part of an overall marketing strategy? Of course, we do that, but this venue is not about self-promotion, is it?
As far as gurus go, why not skip the guru part (because it smacks of self-love) and go with an experienced marketing agency that knows how to do social media as part of an overall marketing strategy? Of course, we do that, but this venue is not about self-promotion, is it?
As far as strategy is concerned for Social Media, right strategy would only surface up when you are on these networks developing understanding of unique nature of different networks which fits with your objective.
To begin with an integrated approach for aligning Social Media Marketing Plan with overall Marketing- Forrester Research has listed down very useful insight on what is called POST strategy:-
P: - People – assess your customers social activity
O: Objective – Decide what you want to accomplish
S: Strategy – Plan how relationship with customer will change
T: Technology – Decide what technology to use
Having answered these question second important aspect is, aligning Social Media objectives with your marketing Objectives. Social Media objectives can be classified as:
Listening
Talking
Energizing
Spreading
To be really successful in your campaign don’t forget to put measurement metrics. I believe that putting a measurement metrics to social media activities actually help in fine tuning our activities. It would to great deal help sync your thinking with nature of different social networking sites to drive results. Every network has a unique behavioral nature of its own. So it is very important to choose right social media mix. Don’t get lost in myriad choices. Decision of choosing the right mix would come after significant research on your audience social media behavior.
Doing things the right way will pay off.
To begin with an integrated approach for aligning Social Media Marketing Plan with overall Marketing- Forrester Research has listed down very useful insight on what is called POST strategy:-
P: - People – assess your customers social activity
O: Objective – Decide what you want to accomplish
S: Strategy – Plan how relationship with customer will change
T: Technology – Decide what technology to use
Having answered these question second important aspect is, aligning Social Media objectives with your marketing Objectives. Social Media objectives can be classified as:
Listening
Talking
Energizing
Spreading
To be really successful in your campaign don’t forget to put measurement metrics. I believe that putting a measurement metrics to social media activities actually help in fine tuning our activities. It would to great deal help sync your thinking with nature of different social networking sites to drive results. Every network has a unique behavioral nature of its own. So it is very important to choose right social media mix. Don’t get lost in myriad choices. Decision of choosing the right mix would come after significant research on your audience social media behavior.
Doing things the right way will pay off.
No comments:
Post a Comment